Little is known about The Wizard of New Zealand who took centre stage in Christchurch's Cathedral Square from the 70s until the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011, which saw the city in a state of disrepair. A man who challenged political, social and cultural ideology, The Wizard posed provocative questions in this public space, much to the delight, and sometimes dismay, of passersby. But the background to why The Wizard was there in the first place has been something of a mystery... until now. Sonia Yee finds out more in this episode of Eyewitness.
There's growing frustration over the government's work to match it's promise to tackle the country's suicide rates. A Mental Health Commission report describes frustration over the pace of change - and points to an urgent need for an overarching action plan. Mental health advocates are also criticising the lack of progress in helping people in Canterbury, with many still severely affected by ongoing trauma from earthquakes and the 2019 Mosque shootings. Eleisha Foon reports.
Base isolation has generally been considered an expensive system used mainly in commercial buildings to make them more earthquake resilient.
Katy Gosset meets the University of Canterbury engineers who've developed a safe, low cost model that could work in our homes.
RNZ is launching a new podcast today marking the tenth anniversary of Christchurch earthquake.
It's called Fragments: Firsthand accounts of the February 2011 earthquakes.
The podcast features interviews done with quake survivors recorded in the months following the devastating earthquake recorded by locals Julie Hutton and Sandra Close.
RNZ checked in with some of the people Hutton and Close spoke to ten years on from the disaster.
Katy Gosset produced and presented the podcast.
An earlier version of this article failed to reference the work from Julie Hutton and Sandra Close.
